Sam Fralick: Businessman, entrepreneur, Cheboygan booster

It is safe to say that few people in Cheboygan know Cheboygan the way Sam Fralick does. To find a man who loves Cheboygan more, or who believes in its future more, might not be possible.

Ann Rowland

Special to the Tribune

It is safe to say that few people in Cheboygan know Cheboygan the way Sam Fralick does. To find a man who loves Cheboygan more, or who believes in its future more, might not be possible.

Born on March 4, 1928, Sam is a third generation Cheboyganite; a native whose father and grandfather both set an example as businessmen and blazed a trail for him to follow. At 84 years old, he's a walking history book of the town that not only shaped him, but that he has had a hand in helping to shape. Through the years and generations, many businesses in Cheboygan that have been touched by the Fralick family. From banks and theatres to gas stations and real estate, if there was an opportunity to get involved, they did. But not as a way of throwing weight around or being a "big man about town". The goal was always the same; to move Cheboygan forward. To lead by example. To believe in the future.

Fralick grew up with hard-working parents who taught him the value of getting an education, and treating people fairly and being honest. "My mother's father was killed in WWI, and that really had an effect on her. She was regimented and particular about things, and taught my brother and me to work hard and be organized. Those were good lessons when my father passed away in 1952. He was just 48 years old."

"When my father died, my mother, my brother and I took over the business that my grandfather had started in 1021; Fralick's Texaco." Sam was just 24 at the time, but had had been working since he was a little boy, "peddling milk for 8₵ a quart!" He speaks of the first year after his father passed, "That was rough, and not only because he had passed. That 1st year of running the station was the main thing that got me started. See, that was the year that they put Mackinaw Avenue in new, and it was closed all summer. They routed all the traffic a different way. It could have been a disaster for us, but we were lucky. The contractor doing the work building the road bought all his fuel from us – and we worked on their equipment too. Without that? Well...I was really blessed."

Sam recalls the Texaco star and gas pumps with glass globes on top that dispensed three different grades of gasoline; Sky Chief, Fire Chief, and the lowest priced; Indian Grade. "In those days you built a business by doing more than was expected," he said. "We'd send a guy out to all the hotels and motels and they'd wash the windshields of the cars there, and leave a little card that told the driver that the clean window was compliments of Fralick's Texaco. It wasn't just good for our station, but it gave a good impression of Cheboygan."

When Sam's younger brother decided to pursue other interests, Sam bought him and their mother out. "Can you imagine?" His eyes twinkle as he leans forward and lays his hands on the table in the house where he lives with his wife of 64 years, Eloise. "I went from making $25 a week to $55! And I went to the bank and borrowed $140,000 to buy them out! That was 1956."

The Texaco station thrived, and when in 1972 Blarney Castle offered to buy him out, "I came home and told Eloise about it, and she said, 'Go! Go!' So that's what we did." By then, the Fralick's children, Mark, Gary, Susan, and Brad, were old enough to begin helping out with the wholesale ice business that their dad had. "They worked with the ice and that put them through college. We didn't have a lot of the fancy toys…no fancy cars, boats, or all that. But the kids all got out of college owing nothing."

As much as Sam Fralick loves Cheboygan, his family is his greatest source of pride. As Eloise walks through the room Sam smiles and tells the story of how they met when his parents hosted a party, and she was in attendance with her parents. "It just worked out. We met in March, and that September we were married. She's the best thing that ever happened to me. You know, I'd never touched alcohol until my brother's wedding and I was 21. She saved me, you know, because I made up for it in the meantime!" He was 22 when they wed, and she just 19.

Sam kept the ice business until "one day a real estate broker came in and asked if I'd like to go into that, and I said, Yes, I'll try that. Went to school and got my license and worked there 3 years. Then I took 9 months off, and started my own office. I stayed with that for a long time, and still do a little bit with real estate."

Sam believes that any success he's known in his life has come because "I've always followed my heart and my convictions…even when it meant that people were mad at me. I had some experiences with that through the years, but I try to be a good man. After so many years of business, I don't have to cross the street for anybody, because I've always tried to live 'here'." He thumps his chest over his heart, and turns toward the window. "And I never asked anyone who worked for me to do a job that I wouldn't do myself."

"One of my great lessons in my life that I never forgot; my grandmother, after her husband was killed in the war, spent all her life insurance inheritance on "his boys"…his war buddies who had survived, but with injuries and things. She'd buy food for them and help them out. I used to go around with her, and I remember one house had dirt floors… I never forgot that. I used to take my kids around after we'd open gifts on Christmas and I'd say, 'You might not have gotten everything you wanted but in some of these houses, they didn't get anything.' I wanted them to learn to appreciate how blessed we were." The Fralicks are active with the Salvation Army "because," Sam says, "they do an awful lot of good. And isn't that what the guy upstairs asks of us?"

These days, Sam likes to meet with friends for morning coffee and spend time with Eloise. He says he doesn't have any real hobbies; unless doing all he can to promote Cheboygan and help the town he loves to grow into the future counts as a hobby. "I really want to see this town go. There used to be so much here; it was a busy place with people coming and going all the time, and I believe that it is coming back. Eloise and I love Cheboygan. We just do. All I want out of life now is to see it revitalized."

"I've met good people in my life. I've had a good life. A lot of that is because I've lived all these years in this town."